A typical fireplace requires that the flue damper remain open after the fire has gone out, while the post-fire coals continue to off-gas carbon monoxide. The flue exhausts a mixture of smoke and air from the interior of the building. As the outdoor temperature drops, flue suction increases, causing even more interior heated air to be exhausted. The loss of interior heated air is a bigger problem for large fireplaces because the flue size grows proportionally with the area of the burning chamber opening. The resulting loss of heated air is a burden on the building's primary heating system. The usual remedy for this problem is to fit the fireplace with doors.
The three most common types of doors used in fireplaces are vertical swinging doors, bi-fold doors and guillotine-type doors. However, each has their own drawbacks. Take swinging doors for example, a fireplace with a large burning chamber greater than five feet in width would have a set of doors that swing greater than two and a half feet into the room. Such large doors obscure the view of the fire. Bi-fold doors protrude somewhat less, but they suffer from other problems such as requiring guide tracks that bind and it can be difficult to create air tight seals for them. Swing doors and bi-fold doors also tend to get hot and may burn the user when opening and closing them. Guillotine-type doors that slide along the wall structure of the fireplace work well at not obscuring the view of the fire; however, maintaining a seal without binding the edges of the door is a problem.
Current building codes suggested by the National Fireplace Protection Association (NFPA) require all fireplace doors be sealed to prevent airflow and promote energy efficiency. The current invention therefore aims to provide for an visually appealing fireplace door apparatus that has code compliant seals, size flexibility, convenient operation and unmatched adjustability that is not found in the prior art.